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Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin
The free course, Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin, gives a taste of what it is like to learn two ancient languages. It is for those who have encountered the classical world through translations of Greek and Latin texts and wish to know more about the languages in which these works were composed.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- explain why Greek and Latin are referred to as classical languages
- understand some of the distinctive features of Greek and Latin and some features they share in common with other languages
- understand why an English translation cannot represent a passage of Greek or Latin word for word
- contrast the role of word order and word endings in Greek and Latin with those in English
- explain the terms case, declension and (for Latin only) conjugation.
First Published: 20/05/2015
Updated: 07/06/2018
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I enrolled for this course because I wanted to improve my basic knowledge of Latin and get an introduction to Greek which I have never studied. I found the Latin a bit easy, but the site you are asked to refer to for the pronunciation of Latin was very useful. I enjoyed the Greek part of the course very much. The alphabet and pronunciation exercises you are referred to on another site are especially useful and very good fun - I learned the Greek alphabet very fast and am now able to read some words and simple sentences written in Greek letters. One thing I think is missing from the course is a book list recommending some textbooks and dictionaries for further study of the two languages. (I can't afford the OU undergraduate course and would like to continue on my own.)